[drmoonshine]

ok so the last ''gardeners'' of my plot left potatos in the ground ive only just dug them up [last years main crop i thinik they where


when digging them up most of them where still sorta hard [a little give] and all of them had like white specs on them like fungus i guess....

im i now going to suffer this year with spuds i put in the ground? will they also get this white fungus stuff?

also am i right in thinking if spuds are left in the ground then next years spuds are going to get blight more easy?

[DD.]

Swollen lenticles?

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=6168.msg72099#msg72099

As for blight, unless the spuds in the ground have it, it won't make a scrap of difference as to whether you get blight next year or not.

[TheSpartacat]

It's hard to diagnose the white specs without seeing them.
They could simply be something called "swollen lenticles", which is completely harmless.

You need to get all the potatoes out of the ground.
Growing the same veg, any veg in the same spot 2 years in a row can cause the build up of disease- not just from any diseases there in the tuber but also, the nutrients that this plant particularly uses from the soil will start to deplete- leaving the plant weaker and more prone to catching a disease!!

And you don't know if these potatoes may have been hit with blight last Autumn and you'd only be encouraging/spreading it by letting any of them sprout.

But I'd certainly do a taste test with your overwintered bonus crop? Potatoes don't like frost and blacken when they've been frozen, so you'll find out when peeling them if theres a problem.... but worth a go? They may have been deep enough underground to have survived?

[TheSpartacat]

Swollen lenticles?

LOL... SNAP!!!
i think i created an echo in the room!

[DD.]

The number of times I've complained to John about these forum accoustics! He's more concerned about getting his kitchen up and running.

[mumofstig]

running....ing....ing....ing 

[drmoonshine]

thanks all.......

the top part of the plant had all died but i guess this is normal lol

ill not be tasting them as i dug them up and put them in with the compost as i sow no use for them.......

as for planting spuds in same ground i will be planting some thing else there and spuds some where else in the garden but i unerstand blight is air born? so if it was there it would get to everything else....

think im in the clear as last time i was round there last year there was no sign of blight on anything. i was just abit worryed as i thought i read some where that leaving spuds in the ground was bad and you may as well be asking for blight to come to your plot

right time to go down the allotment now and dig some more... im taking my cam down today and taking some pics of everthing so i can show you all my hard work lol would love to make a diary

[TheSpartacat]

thanks all.......

the top part of the plant had all died but i guess this is normal lol

ill not be tasting them as i dug them up and put them in with the compost as i sow no use for them.......

as for planting spuds in same ground i will be planting some thing else there and spuds some where else in the garden but i unerstand blight is air born? so if it was there it would get to everything else....

think im in the clear as last time i was round there last year there was no sign of blight on anything. i was just abit worryed as i thought i read some where that leaving spuds in the ground was bad and you may as well be asking for blight to come to your plot

right time to go down the allotment now and dig some more... im taking my cam down today and taking some pics of everthing so i can show you all my hard work lol would love to make a diary

Yes, it's air borne- but can survive in infected tubers and the compost heap!!! (a nice warm environment for fungus to survive) I personally wouldnt risk composting tubers that i dont know the history of.
  
The foliage die back is normal in winter... but the practice of removing infected plants when they get hit with blight is also good practice on allotments, so you might not necessarily have seen any blight last year anyway, even if it had been there. Ask your plot neighbours if they had any blight on the site, it would be a more reliable insight than relying on what you'd seen, would be my advice?

[Kristen]

the top part of the plant had all died but i guess this is normal lol

Yes, dies down at the end of the season, or if it gets hit by frost.

ill not be tasting them as i dug them up and put them in with the compost as i sow no use for them.......

They may all grow in the compost heap I'm afraid ...

i will be planting ... spuds some where else in the garden

That's fine (ideally somewhere where spuds have not grown for 3 years, but I guess you can't know that for sure if you've just taken the plot over)

but i unerstand blight is air born? so if it was there it would get to everything else....

Blight will blow in on the wind next year - either it will come, or not. It won't be in the soil, so you don't have to worry about that, but it can overwinter in parts of potato plants (although I've never understood this because I would think it will kill them off and make the spuds go mushy ... must be some form of "infected but not killed" carrier perhaps)

i was just abit worryed as i thought i read some where that leaving spuds in the ground was bad and you may as well be asking for blight to come to your plot

Definitely remove any "volunteer" spuds that grow (that you did not plant). They may be diseased, but even if not they will help the bugs in that area to perpetuate, and what you want is for there to be NO spuds in that plot for a couple of years so the Potato-specific-bugs don't have a host, and can't survive before you then plant Potatoes again in the 3rd year (or later if you have enough room for a longer crop rotation)

[TheSpartacat]

It won't be in the soil, so you don't have to worry about that, but it can overwinter in parts of potato plants (although I've never understood this because I would think it will kill them off and make the spuds go mushy ... must be some form of "infected but not killed" carrier perhaps)

The spores can only survive in living plant tissue. They become active and start multiplying/producing symptoms only while the weather conditions are damp and muggy... so a tuber infected late in the season might have the spores sitting dormant in it waiting for the next warm damp spell.
And then produce foliage that will put the spores back into the air..
At least thats what i understand?

This is a pretty good site for the life cycle of late blight:
http://www.potatodiseases.org/lateblight.html

But certainly our site has been hit by blight the past three or four years so I treat it as an inevitability to be worked around.

[drmoonshine]

ok most all   of them have been taken out of the ground now. some of them where fine very very small but fine hard no white spots normal looking potatos